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23.30 Thanks for following our live coverage, do join us back here tomorrow for the latest.

21.43 A groups of Israeli activists in Tel Aviv has been filmed cheering the genocide of Gaza children, chanting, "There are no more kids left".

Translated by HuffPost, they sing: "There's no school in Gaza, there are no more kids left". The video, posted two days ago, concludes with the crowd shouting "Gaza is a cemetery".

21.30 ActorsJavier Bardem and Penelope Cruz have written a very moving op-ed for the newspaper El Diario. He characterised the war as one of "occupation and extermination against a people without means, confined to a minimum of land, without water and where hospitals, ambulances and children are targets and alleged terrorists... In the horror happening right now in Gaza there is no place for distance or neutrality... I cannot understand this barbarism, even more brutal and incomprehensible considering all of the horrible things the Jewish people have gone through in the past."

21.00 In a sign of US politicians' unwavering support for Israel, the Senate has unanimously passed a resolution that “supports Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas’ unrelenting and indiscriminate rocket assault into Israel and Israel’s right to destroy Hamas’ elaborate tunnel system into Israel’s territory.

20.45 Here's a moving video clip of Chris Gunness, a UNRWA spokesman breaking down in tears after a television interview.

20.12 Pierre Krähenbühl, the commissioner-general of the UNRWA, says that initial evidence indicates that the UN school was hit by Israeli artillery shells.

This is the sixth time that one of our schools has been struck. Our staff, the very people leading the humanitarian response are being killed. Our shelters are overflowing. Tens of thousands may soon be stranded in the streets of Gaza, without food, water and shelter if attacks on these areas continue.

We have moved beyond the realm of humanitarian action alone. We are in the realm of accountability. I call on the international community to take deliberate international political action to put an immediate end to the continuing carnage.

19.50 The US has reportedly agreed to re-supply Israel with mortars and grenades even as it calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

The White House agreed to let Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) tap a stockpile of weapons stored by the US military in Israel, according to CNN.

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: Vaughn Sterling - At Israel&amp;rsquo;s request the US is re-supplying Israel Defense Forces with several categories of ammunition, CNN has learned&lt;/noframe&gt;

The roughly $1 billion cache of arms, known as War Reserves Stock Allies-Israel programme, is intended for use by America in the event of a Middle East war but can also be transferred to Israel.

The stockpile is stored at Israeli military bases across the country. The US last granted the IDF access in 2006 during its war with Lebanon.

The White House's decision to give Israel 120mm mortars and 40mm grenades came even as it condemned Israel's shelling of a UN-run school in Gaza, which killed 16 people.

A spokeswoman for the State Department said she was not aware of the request by Israel for ammunition.

19.25 The State Department has also condemned the shelling at the UNRWA school but is refusing to say whether Israel would be justified in attacking the school if it was the source of Hamas fire. Marie Harf, the State Department's deputy spokeswoman, says she won't issue "blanket statements" on whether UN facilities should never be targeted.

Jewish leaders condemned the move as "destructive" for community relations as local residents said the council should concentrate on 'potholes and bins' and not international conflicts.

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: Lutfur Rahman - Palestinian flag flying at Town Hall in solidarity with &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/search?src=hash&amp;q=%23Gaza" target="_blank"&gt;#Gaza&lt;/a&gt; and in support of a &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/search?src=hash&amp;q=%23ceasefire" target="_blank"&gt;#ceasefire&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; peace. &lt;a href="http://t.co/W031EGxjTX" target="_blank"&gt;http://t.co/W031EGxjTX&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/noframe&gt;

18.56 The White House has condemned the shelling of a UN-run school in Gaza where displaced Palestinians were sheltering from an assault by Israeli forces on Hamas militants.

"The United States condemns the shelling of a UNRWA school in Gaza, which reportedly killed and injured innocent Palestinians, including children, and UN humanitarian workers," it said, according to AFP.

18.41 Here's more ofUN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon remarks to the media on arrival in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Nothing is more shameful than attacking sleeping children. At least 16 civilians are dead and many more are injured.

I want to make it clear that the precise location of this Jabalia Elementary Girls School had been communicated to the Israeli military authorities 17 times - as recently ‎as last night, just a few hours before the attack.

They were ‎aware of the coordinates and exact locations where these people are being sheltered.

17.58 Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas is seeking an international conference focusing on protecting civilians in Gaza and now the Swiss foreigh ministry has said it is involved in talks.

Switzerland has begun consultations with state parties to the Geneva Conventions, following an official Palestinian request that a conference be held by the end of the year," said a ministry statement.

It underlined for a conference to take place, a broad consensus was required among the Geneva Conventions' 195 signatory states.

Although Abbas' request was prompted by the latest eruption of hostilities in Gaza - which has so far killed more than 1,300 in 23 days of bloodshed - longer-running concerns about the fate of Palestinians in areas under Israeli control are likely to be on the table.

17.47 UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned an Israeli strike on a Gaza school that killed 16 people as "unjustifiable" Wednesday, calling for those responsible to be held to account, AFP reports.

"This morning a UN school sheltering thousands of Palestinian families suffered a reprehensible attack," Ban said during a visit to Costa Rica, accusing the Israeli military of ignoring repeated communications on the school's location. "It is unjustifiable, and demands accountability and justice."

17.46 "This bombardment of an area that is one of the most densely populated on earth, where civilians aren't allowed to leave, is just beyond belief," Massive Attack frontman Robert Del Naja told AFP in Lebanon where he dedicated the band's Middle East gig to the children of Gaza.

"In order to protect yourself, do you really want to massacre another people?" he asked in a question directed at Israel.

17.39 Palestinians gather leaflets that fell from an Israeli plane urging residents in Gaza City to stay away from Hamas militants and to report possible rocket launcher

17.33 The army said the three soldiers had been killed "while uncovering an offensive tunnel shaft in a residence in the southern Gaza Strip. The house and the tunnel were booby trapped with two explosive devices that were detonated against the soldiers," it said, AFP reports..

The attack was claimed by Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, which claimed to have killed a group of soldiers during the bombing of a house in Khan Yunis where they were operating, in a statement was issued earlier in the day.

Another 27 soldiers were wounded in other incidents inside Gaza, the army said.

17.26 Here is the video in which men can be seen chanting “There is no school tomorrow; there are no children left in Gaza,” as well as “I hate all the Arabs” and “Gaza is a cemetery.”

17.20 AFP confirms at least 17 people were killed when Israeli warplanes fired on a packed Gaza market and 200 wounded.

17.16 Via Twitter, IDF said: "Since 15:00, when the IDF authorized a humanitarian window in Gaza, 26 rockets have been fired at Israel."

17.15 AFP: Three soldiers have been killed in fighting in Gaza, the Israeli army said.

Media reports said they had been killed and another 15 wounded when a wall collapsed upon them while they were involved in an operation in the Palestinian coastal enclave.

17.03 There are reports a Palestinian photographer and journalist was killed in the market attack. Meanwhile Harraetz appears to confirm it was an attack by the IDF.

16.49 Israel's ambassador to the United States said criticism from within the Jewish state of Secretary of State John Kerry's peace-making efforts is traceable to Israel's "very rambunctious democracy" and not Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, AP reports.

"This is not coming from the prime minister," Ambassador Ron Dermer said in a nationally broadcast interview. "The prime appreciates" what Kerry has done in seeking a cease-fire in the Gaza war, Dermer said.

And he called the more than three-week conflict "a just war."

"I can't think of a more just war," Dermer said in a television appearance on MSNBC.

"Hamas is no different than al-Qaida. You can imagine what the American people would want their government to do."

16.47 Further detail coming out about the market attack. AFP reports thick black smoke billowed over the site as at least five ambulances raced to the scene where bodies lay strewn on the ground.

A bloodied, limp body lay in a pool of petrol and mud, his head crushed.

A nearby building belted out smoke, still on fire, and the street was strewn with debris.

Medics worked frantically to recover the wounded and dead, loading at least five bodies onto stretchers then driving them off in ambulances.

Among those lying on the ground was a man wearing a flak jacket marked "Press", although it was not immediately clear whether he was dead or wounded.

But this has not been confirmed yet. According to Mr Walker, many had assumed they would be safe assuming the partial ceasefire.

16.34 Israelsaid it would not halt fire in other areas, including in Shijaiyah, where the strike took place, AP reports. Gaza militants had also fired several rockets at Israel earlier.

16.28 An Israeli military spokeswoman said she was checking the report, Reuters said.

16.23 The strike came shortly after the Israeli army said it was observing a humanitarian lull that would be in force for four hours from 12.00 GMT, AFP said.

There is now a humanitarian ceasefire but for some who may be confused as to why there appears to still be strikes continuing, the Israeli army has said the lull would not apply in areas where troops were "currently operating" in a move denounced as a publicity stunt by Hamas.

16.21 At least 15 people were killed and another 150 people wounded in an Israeli air strike on a market near Gaza City, medics said, AFP reports.

Emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said the strike hit a busy market in the battered Shejaiya neighbourhood, which lies between Gaza City and the Israeli border.

16.18 Israel expressed "deep disappointment" Wednesday after Chile, El Salvador and Peru recalled their ambassadors over its military campaign in Gaza, saying they are encouraging Hamas in its attacks on the Jewish state, AFP reports.

On Tuesday, El Salvador's foreign ministry recalled its envoy for urgent consultations, speaking of what it called "indiscriminate" Israeli bombing of Gaza.

The same day, Chile ordered its ambassador home in response to what it said was a "new outbreak of Israeli military operations" and condemned what it called the "collective punishment" of Palestinians in Gaza.

16.15 Palestinian official has told AP 15 people have been killed and more than 150 wounded in strike on a busy Gaza market.

16.05 According to the BBC, Prime Minister David Cameron is sending £3 million in UK aid to Gaza to help the humanitarian situation.

The broadcaster reports the PM said what was happening in Gaza "completely tragic and ghastly" and called for an "unconditional, immediate, humanitarian ceasefire".

15.57 Since the start of the 23-day offensive, there have been many concerns and growing fears of increasing anti-Semitism.

Hannah Weisfeld, Director of Yachad, the UK Jewish community’s mainstream pro-Israel, pro-peace voice, has voiced her anxiety about Israel's security situation and the suffering in Gaza.

Anglo-Jewry is polarised over the situation in Israel today to a level that has never been witnessed inside the community. There is real anxiety about Israel’s security situation, particularly in light of the revelation of the extent of the tunnel infrastructure. However, there is huge concern over the humanitarian toll being suffered by the people of Gaza, and the question of whether the current strategy will do anything to bring about moderation and long-term peace."

The organisation is a British Jewish pro-Israel, pro-peace group, who builds support within Anglo-Jewry for a two-state solution.

15.54 Eight IDF soldiers have been taken to hospital after being injured in Gaza, according to Haaretz.

15.47 Inna Lazareva has verified the video shown earlier of individuals celebrating the death of children. Here is an extract of her report.

There is no school tomorrow; there are no children left in Gaza,” chanted the right-wing extremists gathered opposite Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square on Saturday night, waving Israeli flags and shaking their fingers in the air.

As the the cries of “I hate all the Arabs” and “Gaza is a cemetery” intensified, some of the protestors tried to accost the participants in one of the country’s biggest anti-war demonstrations this year.

“Go protest in Gaza!” they shouted at the thousands spread all over Tel Aviv’s main protest square, in a demonstration that dwarfed the extremists’ riot.

In one corner of the square, just metres away from those calling for the continuation of the war, dozens of tea light candles were set up as a border around the youths crouched inside. Quietly, they lit lit and placed candles around photographs of both Palestinians and Israelis killed in the war so far.

15.43 Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has condemned both Hamas and Israel for their actions in Gaza as "self-defeating" and suggesting both parties may be breaching age old customs of war. The Archbishop also appears to criticise the large loss of civilian life in the area.

For all sides to persist with their current strategy, be it threatening security by the indiscriminate firing of rockets at civilian areas or aerial bombing which increasingly fails to distinguish between combatants and non-combatants, is self-defeating.

The bombing of civilian areas, and their use to shelter rocket launches, are both breaches of age old customs for the conduct of war.

Further political impasse, acts of terror, economic blockades or sanctions and clashes over land and settlements, all increase the alienation of those affected. Populations condemned to hopelessness or living under fear will be violent. Such actions create more conflict, more deaths and will in the end lead to an even greater disaster than the one being faced today.

The Archbishop of Canterbury also criticised the attacks and abuse of Jewish communities in the UK as "simply unacceptable".

While it is acceptable to question and even disagree with particular policies of the Israeli government, the spike in violence and abuse against Jewish communities here in the UK is simply unacceptable.

We must not allow such hostility to disrupt the good relations we cherish among people of all faiths. Rather we must look at ways at working together to show our concern and support for those of goodwill on all sides working for peace.”

15.33 Gal Gadot, the Israeli actress who plays Wonder Woman in the upcoming blockbuster Batman v Superman, has come out in support for the Israeli military, fighting Hamas, reports Nick Allen.

She took to Instagram to say: "I am sending my love and prayers to my fellow Israeli citizens. Especially to all the boys and girls who are risking their lives protecting my country against the horrific acts conducted by Hamas, who are hiding like cowards behind women and children."

15.29 Haaretz is reporting an IAF officer has said there will intensifying aerial strikes ahead of possible deepening of their ground operation.

14.25 As reported earlier, Israel has said it is observing a four-hour humanitarian ceasefire until 4pm local time but AFP reports the move was snubbed by the Islamist Hamas movement, with a spokesman saying it was a meaningless publicity stunt.

"The lull which Israel announced is media exploitation and has no value because it excludes the volatile areas along the border and we won't be able to get the wounded out from those areas," Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement.

UN figures show up to 240,000 people have fled their homes as a result of the fighting which began on July 8 and has so far killed more than 1,297 people in Gaza and 56 in Israel.

14.10 Here are some images from today's attack on the school and Khan Younis.

A boy looks through the wall of a building damaged by an Israeli strike at the Abu Hussein UN school in the Jebaliya refugee camp

Palestinians gather around destroyed and damaged houses in Khan Younis

Brigadier General Yaron Rosen, commander of IAF Air Support and Helicopter Air Division, said: "The State of Israel did not attack Gaza’s power plant."

In the interview with the newspaper, Brig Gen Rosen said there was a chance it could have been hit by Israel by mistake but "the matter is under investigation".

13.33

Israeli soldiers embrace after exiting the Gaza Strip where they took part in military operations, next to the Israel-Gaza border. On the Israeli side, the Israel-Hamas conflict has cost the lives of 53 soldiers.

An Iranian woman looks at a mural drawing of spearmen with bearing the faces of, from left: Iraq's late president Saddam Hussein, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, a masked man, US President Barack Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Teheran. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged the Islamic world to arm Palestinians to allow them to counter what he called Israel's 'genocide' in the Gaza Strip.

13.23 The head of UN agency for Palestinian refugees issued a denunciation of an Israel strike on one of its schools in Gaza, AFP reports.

"I condemn in the strongest possible terms this serious violation of international law by Israeli forces," said UNRWA Commissioner General Pierre Krahenbuhl, saying the school's location had been communicated to the Israeli army 17 times.

Shortly after dawn, two shells slammed into classrooms in the school where thousands of Palestinian refugees were sheltering after fleeing their homes following an Israeli warning, as the fighting intensified in northern Gaza.

"This is the sixth time one of our UNRWA schools has been struck. Our staff leading the international response are being killed," he wrote, indicating some 3,300 people had been sheltering in the school in Jabaliya refugee camp at the moment it was struck.

"Children, women and men killed and injured as they slept in place where they should have been safe and protected. They were not. Intolerable."

13.22 Roger Cohen has written a powerful piece in the New York Times in which he explains why he believes in Zionism and the importance of Israel having its own land but not "the perversion of Zionism that has seen the inexorable growth of a Messianic Israeli nationalism claiming all the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River".

In the piece, though critical of Israel, condemns Hamas as "vile".

I am a Zionist because the story of my forebears convinces me that Jews needed the homeland voted into existence by United Nations Resolution 181 of 1947, calling for the establishment of two states — one Jewish, one Arab — in Mandate Palestine.

What I cannot accept, however, is the perversion of Zionism...that has, for almost a half-century now, produced the systematic oppression of another people in the West Bank; that has led to the steady expansion of Israeli settlements on the very West Bank land of any Palestinian state... that blockades Gaza with 1.8 million people locked in its prison and is then surprised by the periodic eruptions of the inmates; and that responds disproportionately to attack in a way that kills hundreds of children.

This, as a Zionist, I cannot accept.

Jews, above all people, know what oppression is.

He explains "Zionism was born of a reluctant conclusion: that Jews needed a homeland because no other place would ever be home".

13.10 &lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: IDF - The IDF has opened a humanitarian window in Gaza from 15:00 to 19:00. Window does not apply to areas where IDF soldiers are operating.&lt;/noframe&gt;

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: IDF - Gaza residents must not return to areas from which they have been asked to evacuate. IDF will respond to any attempt to attack Israel.&lt;/noframe&gt;

13.08 AP reports Hamas militants in Gaza had no immediate reaction to the military's announcement.

13.05 The lull will not apply in areas where ground troops were "currently operating", it said, without elaborating in a statement which came several hours after the army advanced deeper into the Gaza Strip, AFP reports.

"Residents must not return to areas that have previously been asked to evacuate," it added.

13.02 There is more from the Christian Aid charity statement on the situation and their call for peace.

For Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory to be truly secure, democratic and peaceful, then occupation must end and all within it must be treated equally.

If the international community continues with the same approach to this conflict, then it is complicit in the current situation.

12.58 The Israeli army has agreed to observe a four-hour humanitarian lull in the fighting in the Gaza Strip, which will begin at 1200 GMT Wednesday, a statement said, AFP reports.

"The IDF (army) has authorised a temporary window in the Gaza Strip. The window will commence today between 15:00-19:00 (1200 - 1600 GMT)," it said, warning residents not to return to areas which they had evacuated.

The charity is urging an immediate end to all violence against civilians and honest and concrete measures to demonstrate to all those who breach international law that they will be held to account.

The charity describes the situation as "a lethal combination of international political impotence and indifference" and adds: "Those who have died deserve us to be honest about what is happening. The world cannot claim to be unaware".

12.29 There are pictures of theIsraeli army leaflet mentioned earlier from Robert Tait.

They were air dropped into Gaza City this morning giving Gazans a hotline number and email address to send information giving the locations of "terrorists", rocket launchers, tunnels, weapons storage places. The leaflet reads: "the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) is moving to the next stage of its operations and is not interested in harming innocent civilians.

It warned the people in the territories where operations were carried out. Here, for your safety, stay away from terrorist elements in the zones where terrorist activities are carried out. To help your family, send all information to rocket launching facilities, tunnel locations, weapons stores and military installations.

For this purpose, we have added a new telephone line to respond to your communications. Be responsible for you fate! We guarantee total anonymity. Thanks so much to those who respond and help us to recent terrorist operations. You can contact us through the following email address: HelpGaza14@gmail.com

Telephone: 03 3769999

03 5374350"

12.18 Robert Tait has sent this photo of Rezeq Sa'id Adham, 15, waiting for surgery at Kamal Odwan hospital in Beit Lahiya for injuries suffered in the UNRWA school shelling.

12.10 The footage below shows the aftermath of the destruction of a mosque in the outskirts of Gaza City, writes Olivia Rzadkiewicz.

It also features a gentleman who built the mosque saying he can't believe it and doesn't understand what Israel is doing. He says he fought in WW2 but says that what is currently happening is not a war.

12.05 More from AFP about the seven killed. Six people, three of them women, were killed in the southern city of Khan Yunis, and another woman killed in the central town of Deir al-Balah, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said.

Their deaths raised to 67 the total number of people killed on Wednesday, with another 180 people injured, he said. Haaretz is reporting that IDF soldiers have been wounded during fighting in south Gaza.

Overall, some 1,296 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,200 hurt since the Israeli operation began on July 8, Qudra's figures show

12.01 Four women among seven killed in strikes on Gaza, medics say.

11.58 The Washington Post has reported on the difference between individuals young and old towards Israel's activities in Gaza. According to Pew Research Center, only 21 per cent blame Hamas for the offensive while 29 per cent blame Israel more.

This is in stark contrast to those aged 50 to 64 and 65 plus. Only 14 and 15 per cent of the individuals within those categories said Israel was to blame but said Hamas was the cause by 47 and 53 per cent respectively.

The newspaper remarks it is the second poll to show the difference. According to Gallup data, 51 per cent of 18 to 29-year-olds believe Israel's actions were unjustified, while a quarter of older Americans believed they were.

11.48 Footage posted on YouTube by the Shebab News Agency claims to give a first hand account of a Hamas militant's journey through one such tunnel, from Gaza into Israel, Geraldine Cooper writes.

In the video, fighters can be seen emerging from underground, before running off towards what appears to be an Israeli army watchtower.

The subsequent footage of that attack is too graphic to show.

11.44 Israeli forces are dropping leaflets, giving people a number to call and to give the locations of people called terrorists. It is a call to collaborate, Robert Tait reports.

They've given a list of names of Hamas and Islamic Jihad people who are dead and say, if you don't want to join this list, if you don't want your son to join this list, call this number and email address. They want people to give the names of people they call terrorists, to give locations of where the rocket launchers and where terrorists are seeking refuge.

Robert Tait describes what he found when he went to visit the UN school in Jabaliya refugee camp.

Witnesses say they have seen shells. These are scenes of devastation. In one classroom at the school, 123 women and children were crowded into one room, several died but men, women and children were killed.

People were saying they came to seek refuge and take shelter and then they found themselves targeted.

Outside the school, 10 dead donkeys lying around and belonged to people, transporting their belongings.

There are reports the Jabaliya local market was attacked with three people killed, including a five-year-old boy.

10.37 The UN has now said at least 19 people were killed and 125 wounded in today's attack on a UN school where Palestinian families were taking refuge, Reuters reports.

Despite the UN saying they were Israeli shells that hit the school, an Israeli military spokeswoman in Tel Aviv said she had no immediate information about what had happened at the facility, which belongs to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which said it had recovered fragments from the shells.

10.29 More reports are coming in of those killed from Gaza medics. Seven members of the same family were killed when an Israeli tank shelling struck the southern city of Khan Yunis, AFP reports.

According to emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra, the victims were all from the Abu Amer family.

10.26 Israel is considering a “diplomatic exit plan” to end the conflict in Gaza, the country’s daily Haaretz reports. Such a plan - in the form of a United Nations Security Council Resolution - proposes to bring the fighting that has been ongoing for 23 days to an end.

Inna Lazareva explains how and why it would help.

The advantage of such a resolution is that it would “minimise Hamas’s international legitimacy and advance Israeli interests, such as disarming Gaza and returning the Palestinian Authority to the Strip”, notes Haaretz’s diplomatic commentator Barak Ravid.

In 2006, a UN Security Council Resolution 1701 was instrumental in ending the Second Lebanon War. That resolution also called for disarmament of rockets and other weaponry in southern Lebanon and expanded the mandate of the UN peace keeping forces UNIFIL in that region.

10.17 Philip Hammond has been on Radio 4 Today as aforementioned. Here is what he told BBC's Sarah Montague on the issue of the conflict.

What is happening in Gaza is a humanitarian catastrophe and the world is appalled by what it is seeing and is united in demanding of both sides an unconditional and immediate ceasefire.

That is the way to stop the death toll mounting and to alleviate suffering of the Palestinian people. Both sides have legitimate concerns and demands and all of those things have to be discussed once the ceasefire has been agreed.

But none of them can be allowed to be preconditions to the introduction to a ceasefire which is needed for humanitarian purposes. That must come first.

On the issue of Hamas and whether it is legitimate, Mr Hammond said:

Hamas and Fatah have made some kind of reconciliation so that the Palestinian administration now has an agreement with Hamas to work with it. We want the Palestinian Authority to be involved in these ceasefire negotiations and to lead these talks. But we recognise that Hamas will be part of that Palestinian Authority team.

On what he has said to the Israeli PM, Mr Hammond added:

We have urged Israel from the very beginning to act with proper regard to humanitarian law and to take the greatest care to avoid any unnecessary civilian casualities.

I have also explained to Israeli ministers, not only the prime minister, that western public opinion which was sympathetic to Israel over the rocket attacks that were being launched on Israeli civilian communities is rapidly turning against Israel because of the scale of the action going on in Gaza.

Israelis have to understand that while they are defending security in seeking to route out these rocket launchers and deal with attack tunnels, they are also undermining the support for Israel that exists in the West.

When asked whether Israeli's actions were "disproportionate", Mr Hammond did not directly comment because it was an "emotive" word.

He concluded that claims from both sides will have to be investigated.

09.59 Haaretz is reporting that IAF aircraft sent flyers over parts of Gaza to warn of military operations due to take place.

The newspaper reports "IDF forces continued to advance into built-up areas within the Gaza Strip overnight, the IDF says. Speaking on Army Radio, the IDF Spokesman said that the incursion was continuing.

09.54 Three youths were in custody over the savage beating of two Palestinians by a Jewish mob in the east Jerusalem settlement of Neve Yaakov, Israeli police told AFP.

"A Jerusalem court has to decide whether to extend the detention of the three Jewish men suspected of attacking two east Jerusalem residents on July 25," a statement said.

Amir Shweiki, 20, and Samer Mahfouz, also 20, were out walking last Friday evening when they were approached by a mob who asked them for cigarettes and then produced iron bars and began hitting them, one of the victims told newspaper Haaretz.

Both were taken to Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital, where Shweiki was treated in intensive care.

09.51 Footage has emerged, according to The Times of Israel, of far-right Israeli protesters chanting: “There is no school tomorrow; there are no children left in Gaza” as well as “I hate all the Arabs” and “Gaza is a cemetery".

According to the newspaper, the chants came during a protest countering an anti-war rally in Rabin Square over the weekend in Tel Aviv. In the video, some are calling on those chanting to stop, but they refuse.

On YouTube, the individual who has posted the link has said it is from July 26 but this could not be verified. If correct, it would have been the day after a UN school in Beit Hanoun sheltering Palestinian families was attacked.

Meanwhile, Radio 4's Sarah Montague quotes some of the interview with Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond on the Today programme

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: Sarah Montague - Foreign Sec Philip Hammond on &lt;a href="http://www.twitter.com/BBCr4today" target="_blank"&gt;@BBCr4today&lt;/a&gt; now: western opinion "rapidly turning against Israel because of the scale of the action in Gaza"&lt;/noframe&gt;

09.07 Three children were among six people killed in an Israeil tank shelling on Gaza City on Wednesday, medics said, according to AFP.

The attack took place in Tuffah neighbourhood in the northeastern part of the city, killing six members of the Al-Khalili family, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said.

The violence raised Wednnesday's death toll in Gaza to well over 30 people, among them at least 16 who were killed in the shelling of a UN school in Jablaliya refugee camp in the north, the agency said.

09.05 We have a full story online about the attack on the UN school which killed 16, including children, the UN said.

So far, UN figures show more than 215,000 people have fled their homes in a territory which is home to 1.7 million Palestinians, leaving one in eight people homeless.

Many have taken shelter at schools run by UNRWA, a number of which have been hit by shells in the past week and at least two of which have been used by militants to store rockets.

Emergency services workers at the school were picking body parts off the blood-soaked floor of a bombed-out classroom, an AFP correspondent said.

The outer wall of the complex had also been damaged and a number of dead animals including donkeys could be seen lying on the ground.

A UN official told AFP Israeli shells had hit the building at around 5.30 am (02.30 GMT).

08.43 Inna Lazareva says the Israeli security cabinet is scheduled to meet this afternoon to discuss the latest Egyptian cease-fire proposal, and to decide whether or not to expand the operation in Gaza.

United Nations Relief and Works Agency has discovered rockets in one of their schools in Gaza for the third time. This time, UNRWA Spokesperson Chris Gunness said UN sappers had been called who defused the rockets (mechanism instated last week by Ban Ki Moon, who was furious that previously, rockets were handed back to Hamas).

08.40 According to AFP, a UN official said Israeli shells had hit the school building at around 5.30 am (02.30 GMT). Those sheltering there quickly gathered their belongings and fled. The army had been pounding the area with tank fire for an hour prior to the incident.

It comes after Robert Tait reported fresh attempts at a ceasefire were being made.

John Kerry, the US secretary of state, said Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, had indicated he was willing to negotiate a ceasefire in a telephone conversation on Monday night.

An Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman told The Telegraph "nothing concrete had been agreed" but confirmed Cairo was talking to all the parties, which include not only Israel and Hamas, which runs Gaza, but the Palestinian Authority and Islamic Jihad, a second Gaza militant group.

In Gaza itself thick black smoke billowed above the electricity plant's eight towers more than 12 hours after an Israeli shell hit a fuel tank, triggering a massive blaze and causing damage that will take up to 18 months to repair.

08.34 A time-lapse video appears to show IsraeliArmy air strikes flattening a Gaza neighbourhood in an hour. It originally appeared on Saudi Arabian television and is reportedly filmed before Saturday's 12-hour ceasefire. Buildings are reduced to rubble in the video without an hour from 4.02pm GMT after repeated air strikes. The Israeli military has said it is targeting Hamas command centres, along with rocket launchers and weapons arsenals.

08.25 Welcome to The Telegraph's live coverage of the conflict in Israel and Gaza, as the Israeli offensive in the Palestinian territory enters its 23 day.

At least 16 people - including children - have been killed by Israeli artillery shells at a UN school being used as a shelter in Jabaliya refugee camp in what has been another heavy night, Robert Tait reports.

Jabaliya refugee camp is one of the most densely populated areas in Gaza but is also one of the areas the Israelis ordered evacuated on Monday night. The number of Palestinian dead has now climbed to 1,260 with nearly a quarter of a million forced to flee their homes.

The news comes as Palestinian factions were reportedly heading to Cairo today to discuss a temporary humanitarian ceasefire. Israel Defence Forces said on Twitter nearly 3,000 rockets had been launched at Israel since the start of the offensive and the country has seen 56 killed, including three civilians by Hamas fire.